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George mentions the move to hermetic boxes and efforts to limit distractions and mentions folks with ADHD. As someone diagnosed with that condition (as is my younger son) this is an important issue that architects have failed to help address. We learned a lot in the course of getting our son's diagnosis - which is what prompted me to go and get an evaluation also. One critical element is indeed the visual environment, except that anyone who's designed schools knows that you can provide as pristine a classroom environment as you like, but the first thing pretty much any teacher does is over every available square foot of wall space that they can reach with posters, kids projects, etc. Even if you made all of the walls glass, preventing tacking things up, they'd just use tape or sticky tack. Even if you try to corral such visual detritus by copious use of tack space - they STILL cover the open walls with everything from ABC cards to sheet music, depending up on the grades. That said, one critical element in that consideration is window placement - how high on the wall the glass goes. There is almost an inverse relationship between the age of the children and the optimal window height. Lower grades should have skylights or clerestories - so kids can't see cars or people going by if they look out the window. As you move up in grades this is less of an issue, and even though HS seniors still have attention issues they're better able to deal with a window view and still are able to be successful in the class. Beyond this, however, is the increasing recognition on the part of educators on the need for the ability to incorporate dynamic learning within a typical classroom environment. This is where we get back to the original subject of this thread. The notion of extending the school day only exacerbates the issue of attention-challenged kids - and neurotypical kids as well. If a district is proposing to extend the school day, it only increases the urgency of developing instructional spaces that can allow a wider and more dynamic range of classroom activities - or the need for more types of spaces and a change in curriculum and scheduling to accomodate it. The bottom line is, whether you extend the school day or not, one of the most effective and provable ways to improve student performance through architectural changes is to modify classrooms or build new ones to allow for in-class dynamic learning. You may need more space in a typical room, you may need more resilient floor surfaces in sections of the rooms, etc., depending upon how the district wants to approach this issue. And again, if a longer school day is contemplated, the need for such greater variety is that much more urgent. As for the why question - why a longer school day - one issue is the need, particularly in the lower grades, for children to remain in school longer to make it easier for parents. The shorter day works fine when one parent can stay home, but speaking from experience it can create serious strain on families where both parents work, both anxiety and budgetary, if they have to find a way to cover their child from 3-5 PM each afternoon. Single parents feel this even more acutely; with two wage earners there is some ability to shift schedules an hour or so but with only one that is not an option. As children move up through the grades this gets easier...sort of. Then the concern, somewhat gender-specifically, is with children being released at 3 and left to their own device. After school activities can be a solution - but again that can require more or different types of spaces for some of the specialized activities a district may wish to support. Either way, it just doesn't work if the approach to a longer school day is just to keep the kids longer in the same classrooms. Educators and district leadership need to understand that for such a change to be effective, their school facilities must be modified or expanded with just as much deliberation as they expend in carefully making the curriculum changes for the longer day. Otherwise they will not only not get improved student performance, overall performance may in fact decrease. ------------------------------------------- Eric Davis AIA Oak Park IL -------------------------------------------
Show Original Message
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-09-2013 08:53
From: George Jennings
Subject: Longer School Days?
If one looks at the evolution of school facilities over the nearly past century, we have gone from beautiful old facilities with very tall windows to boxes with only artificial illumination, and now we are returning to the introduction of natural light and landscape again. Many of the educational facilities exhibited in professional design journals show much of the exterior environment with the students making use of the exterior in educational and social interactive ways. There is a lot to be said for that, even if the photos are staged!
The enclosed box concept of the past was to keep the daydreamers like myself (ADHD) from being distracted. But daydreamers need to know there are "places" beyond the box we can get to and explore! And after school, we need to get out and realize there is a larger world of great and not great at all "projects" to consider.
Extended school days could be effective if they are something other than "after hours babysitting" infused with something other than the same old thing. It would be a great time to let a student select THEIR perceived area of interest and to test that interest. But I firmly believe they need to know there is more than just the interior of a facility to feel the opportunity to expand their minds.
Unfortunately, there are limited funds in education to do anything more than deliver the "standard of education that will increase standard testing scores" to the "normal" student.That leaves a lot of us out!
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George Jennings AIA
G Booker 3
Tappahannock VA
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-08-2013 20:39
From: Ariel Mieling
Subject: Longer School Days?
George has an interesting point with outdoor learning and there is no reason why that can't be integrated into the school day. In fact there are some pretty innovative programs that incorporate gardening into the curriculum.
I don't think a longer school day is inherently better. There has to be a good reason for a longer day. If school is just kids listening to someone "drone on all day" as George put it, the day might be too long already. But, as project based learning becomes more integral in our classrooms and students are given the opportunity to explore knowledge rather than being feed information, the day may need to be longer as an approach like this takes more time.
If NY had reasons like this behind a longer day, it would be worth considering
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Ariel Mieling Assoc. AIA
Architectural Expressions
Champaign IL
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-07-2013 09:12
From: George Jennings
Subject: Longer School Days?
As so often is the case, I agree with Charles. Making kids sit in school longer hours listening to the same persons they have heard drone on all day is not necessarily an effective answer - if it is an answer at all.
Recently there was a webinar on the effectiveness of exterior experience spaces around schools where kids spent time other than recess simply experiencing the offerings of the exterior environment as opposed to always being inside "plugged in" to some piece of technology. There is a tremendous amount to learn just being outside or at least being able to observe what happens on the exterior of building shells. That's why so many corridors are now on courtyards or perimeters of facilities - to get the occupants as close to the exterior as possible.
Kids can plant things and watch them grow while beginning the understand the effects of weather phenomena on atmospheric conditions - interior and exterior - and how all of that ties into the effects of the natural and man made environment on environmental elements. There is an opportunity to experience what you are having to read about or hear about indoors.
Then it becomes the question of how to get kids outside after school if their parents aren't around to monitor their activities. Kids today are either "plugged in" inside a facility or their home, or being affected by older "peers" because of the change in the family and social structures, which is indicating more harmful effects than good.
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George Jennings AIA
G Booker 3
Tappahannock VA
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-04-2013 14:17
From: Charles Graham
Subject: Longer School Days?
Define "successful". In most cases where longer days are proposed, success is limited to test scores, while the overall health of the child suffers.
Studies across five states show that admitting daylight into classrooms increases performance, without doing anything else.
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Charles Graham AIA
Architect
O'Neal, Inc.
Greenville SC
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-03-2013 12:10
From: Brian Minnich
Subject: Longer School Days?
NY commission seeks longer school day, year Some charter schools have been successful with this model for years, but in the public sector, with out private funding support, where would the money come from?
http://news.yahoo.com/ny-commission-seeks-longer-school-142940185.html
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Brian Minnich AIA
Rubeling & Associates, Inc.
Towson MD
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